Reservoirs: a neglected source of methane emissions

Eawag Aquatic Research (Switzerland): Substantial amounts of the greenhouse gas methane are released not only from large tropical reservoirs but also from run-of-the-river reservoirs in Switzerland, especially in the summer, when water temperatures are higher. This was demonstrated by Eawag scientists at Lake Wohlen, near Bern – a finding which slightly tarnishes the reputation of hydropower as a climate-neutral way of generating electricity.

When they first saw the data, environmental chemist Tonya Del Sontro and her PhD supervisor Professor Bernhard Wehrli were sceptical. But the unexpectedly high values stood up to careful analysis: on average, daily emissions of methane (CH4) from Lake Wohlen amount to more than 150 mg per m2 surface area. This is by far the highest emission rate recorded to date for a temperate reservoir. At a water temperature of 17°C the rate is twice as high, which makes it comparable to the emission rates observed for tropical reservoirs.

Overall, the reservoir on the Aare produces 150 tonnes of methane a year. This is about the same amount as is emitted annually by around 2000 cows; in terms of global warming potential, it is equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions from 25 million car kilometres, since methane is about 25 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2. "So hydropower isn't quite as climate-neutral as people have assumed in the past," says Del Sontro. At the same time, she does not wish to dramatize the findings of her research: even if the Aare hydropower plant is taken to be responsible for all the methane emissions from the reservoir, and these are expressed in CO2-equivalents, a coal-fired power station with the same output produces 40 times as much CO2. However, the emissions from Lake Wohlen do indicate that run-of-the-river reservoirs can also be significant sources of methane emissions in temperate regions. As Wehrli notes, "That's something which has previously been overlooked in greenhouse gas budgets."…

The hydropower plant on Lake Wohlen, shot by Roland Zumbühl of Picswiss, Wikimedia Commons via Picswiss, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Environmental changes hurting rice yield

International Rice Institute: Environmental changes are to blame for a 15% drop in the yield of “miracle rice” – also known as rice variety IR8 – since the 1960s when it was first released and lauded for its superior yields that helped avert famine across Asia at the time.

IR8 used to produce a maximum yield of 9.5 to 10.5 tons per hectare, significantly more than other varieties in the 1960s when average global rice yields were around only 2 tons per hectare. But, when grown today, IR8 can yield at most only around 8 tons per hectare.

“IR8 still performs very well considering global average rice yields still hover around 4 tons per hectare, but a 15% yield drop is significant and we needed to find out what was happening,” said Dr. Shaobing Peng, a crop physiologist from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and coauthor of a study published in Field Crops Research about the declining yields of IR8.

Dr. Peng and his team grew rice from original IR8 seeds preserved in the International Rice Genebank and compared it to rice grown from IR8 seeds continuously grown and harvested over the last few decades. He wanted to see if the genetics of IR8 had changed over time and if that was responsible for the yield drop – or if something about the environment was the cause.

“Our study eliminated changes in the genetic composition of IR8, which may have occurred over time, as the possible cause of the yield decline, and instead identified changes in the environment as the cause of the decline,” Dr. Peng said.

“Hotter nights, which are known to reduce rice yields, and other environmental changes such as modifications in soil properties due to intensive rice cropping and air pollution are all possible contributing factors,” he added….

A rice paddy in Shizuoka, Japan, shot by okapi, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Satellites search for 770 million tons of dust

Terra Daily: Using data from several research satellites, scientists will spend the next three years trying to understand the climate impacts of about 770 million tons of dust carried into the atmosphere every year from the Sahara Desert. Some Saharan dust falls back to Earth before it leaves Africa. Some of it streams out over the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea, carried on the wind as far away as South America and the southeastern U.S. All of it has an as-yet unmeasured impact on Earth's energy budget and the climate by reflecting sunlight back into space.

"The people who build climate models make some assumptions about dust and its impact on the climate," said Dr. Sundar Christopher, a professor of atmospheric science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Christopher will use a $500,000 grant from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) mission, developed and managed by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

CALIPSO is an Earth observing satellite that provides new insight into the role that clouds and atmospheric aerosols play in air quality, weather and climate. Christopher will use both CALIPSO and Aqua satellite data in his research.

Aqua was the first member launched of a group of satellites termed the Afternoon Constellation, or A-Train, a group of satellites that travel in line, one behind the other, along the same track, as they orbit Earth. Combining the information from several instruments gives a more complete answer to many questions about Earth's atmosphere than would be possible from any single satellite observation taken by itself….

A dust plume off Mauritania, via NASA

Huge parts of the world are drying up

Science Daily: The soils in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including major portions of Australia, Africa and South America, have been drying up in the past decade, a group of researchers conclude in the first major study to ever examine "evapotranspiration" on a global basis.

Most climate models have suggested that evapotranspiration, which is the movement of water from the land to the atmosphere, would increase with global warming. The new research, published online this week in the journal Nature, found that's exactly what was happening from 1982 to the late 1990s.

But in 1998, this significant increase in evapotranspiration -- which had been seven millimeters per year -- slowed dramatically or stopped. In large portions of the world, soils are now becoming drier than they used to be, releasing less water and offsetting some moisture increases elsewhere.

Due to the limited number of decades for which data are available, scientists say they can't be sure whether this is a natural variability or part of a longer-lasting global change. But one possibility is that on a global level, a limit to the acceleration of the hydrological cycle on land has already been reached.

If that's the case, the consequences could be serious. They could include reduced terrestrial vegetation growth, less carbon absorption, a loss of the natural cooling mechanism provided by evapotranspiration, more heating of the land surface, more intense heat waves and a "feedback loop" that could intensify global warming….

Shot by MarkDhawn, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Sea level is best way to predict impacts of climate change

Xinhua: More thorough sea level monitoring is needed to protect one trillion dollars (0.98 trillion U.S. dollars) worth of the world's infrastructure threatened by climate change, an Australian leading ocean scientist said on Sunday. In the book Understanding Sea-level Rise and Variability, released on Sunday, Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) oceanographer John Church said the best way to predict the impacts of climate change is to look at the sea.

"The oceans are absolutely central to climate change," Church told Australia Associated Press on Sunday. "If we want to predict climate change accurately we've got to look at the oceans and for that matter the ice sheets."

Dr Church said there are around one trillion dollars (0.98 trillion U.S. dollars) worth of infrastructure, and 140 million people living a meter or less above sea-level, and therefore, the sea-level data is very important. "These coastal areas - the infrastructure and the environment - are already affected by extreme events," Dr Church said….

Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty," shot by Soren.harward, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Hundreds of North Carolina homes damaged

John Pape in Disaster News Network: North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue has requested a federal disaster declaration for six eastern North Carolina counties hit by flooding and strong winds triggered by the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole last week. Perdue requested the disaster declaration late Thursday even as assessment teams continued their work in several additional counties that still have flooding in some areas.

…Relief assistance hotlines have been established by the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Baptist Men Disaster Relief, The United Methodist Men and the Vanceboro Christian Help Center for those still needing help.

The governor’s formal disaster declaration request, if approved by President Barack Obama, would clear the way for FEMA to provide low-interest loans or grants to storm victims to help them repair their homes.

…Total damage assessments to area roads, buildings and public services have not yet been completed, and no preliminary dollar estimate on the damage has been released. However, emergency management officials say initial estimates indicate the state as a whole will likely not qualify for federal funding to recuperate costs for emergency protective measures and to repair roads, bridges and public infrastructure damaged by the flooding….

Tropical Storm Nicole on September 30, 2010

Hungary village evacuated as new toxic flood 'likely'

Terra Daily via AFP: Hungarian police and soldiers evacuated 800 villagers Saturday as authorities said a second flood of toxic sludge from a chemicals plant was likely after new cracks appeared in a dyke. The villagers were evacuated at dawn from Kolontar, which is close to the reservoir that burst in western Hungary Monday, killing seven people, injuring scores more and poisoning rivers in the country's worst ecological disaster.

Security forces also warned thousands of residents in the nearby village of Devecser to be ready to be moved if necessary, officials said. "The reservoir is so damaged that it is likely that it will give way for a second time," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. "If the dyke of the reservoir gives way, about 500,000 cubic metres will be released. Several cracks are visible from the north side of the reservoir," he said.

The first flood on October 4 released 1.1 million cubic metres (38.8 million cubic feet) of foul-smelling red toxic sludge into villages and rivers. "The evacuation of Kolontar began at six in the morning (0400 GMT) after we noticed that the dam started weakening at tank number 10," Disaster Relief Team chief Tibor Dobson told AFP…

A farm covered by "red mud" in outside of Kolontár, 167 Kilometers south-east to Budapest, shot by Balázs Mohai, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Spain license

The importance of transferring risk in climate adaptation

Andreas Spiegel of Swiss Re in Climate Biz: Global efforts to address climate change have been in disarray following the failed talks in Copenhagen. But even if all carbon emissions were stopped at once, climate trends would continue to expose local populations to the mounting challenges -- and costs -- of protecting greater property values against weather-related risks.

…. Case studies in eight different regions of the globe, ranging from Maharashtra, India, to Florida and Northern England, showed that up to 68 percent of expected losses from climate change can be averted using cost-effective adaptation measures. These include improved drainage and irrigation systems, sea barriers and enhanced building codes, vegetation buffers and disaster awareness campaigns, among others.

The ready availability and proven value of such measures make a strong case for preventive action. Yet, no community can afford to prevent damage from every imaginable risk event, especially from those hazards that are least likely to occur and can only be averted at a prohibitively high cost -- if at all.

…[O]ff-loading risk to the private insurance and capital markets usually proves to be the most economical adaptation measure. This can be done through a variety of risk transfer methods, such as traditional indemnity-based insurance, parametric index solutions, catastrophe bonds or other similar financial arrangements. These instruments cap losses and smooth the cost to individuals, businesses and public institutions, thereby protecting local economies from the impact of catastrophic events.

But risk prevention and risk transfer are mutually reinforcing. While insurance is a useful component in a given adaptation portfolio, keeping insurance prices in check by minimizing residual risks through prevention measures is equally important. In turn, properly set insurance premiums provide a strong incentive to invest in those types of prevention activities that promise to yield net economic rewards….

Hurricane Otto eyes Bermuda

Jamaica Observer: The eighth hurricane for the 2010 season was formed yesterday and was moving towards Bermuda, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC). It said that Hurricane Otto, a Category One storm, was packing winds of 75 miles per hour. It was situated 445 miles south of Bermuda and that while there are no coastal or other warnings in effect, the hurricane could strengthen over the next few hours. But the NHC said that Hurricane Otto should begin weakening by late today….

Impact of climate change on Jakarta

Tommy Firman in the Jakarta Post: Coastal mega-cities in Asia are facing the adverse impacts of climate change, including flooding, rising sea levels and intense storm surges, all of which could damage housing, infrastructure and city and national economies. However, to a certain extent the issues of climate risks are still widely misunderstood and underestimated because discourse on the subject has largely been limited to circulation within the scientific community. Very little information has been systematically communicated to the broader public.

Jakarta is considered very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Nevertheless, the Jakarta administration still does not have a strategy to design and implement policies to deal with climate change. The central government has been more progressive, having issued several climate-related regulations, including air quality control, absorption wells, gas emission controls, bio-pore absorption holes, smoke-free zones and river and drainage improvements.

The Jakarta administration tends to focus more on disaster management instead of efforts to anticipate the effects of climate change. Instead of constantly responding on an after-the-fact basis, their efforts should be more proactive and consider long-term horizons.

...The Jakarta General Spatial Plan (RUTR) is currently under revision, but is expected to be completed by the end of 2010. The present Jakarta Spatial Plan does not take climate change factors into consideration. Appropriate indicators to assess the impacts of climate change still have not been formulated. The revised spatial plan will incorporate analysis of hazards such as flooding, land sinkage and fires. If amendments to Jakarta’s general spatial plan are under consideration, revision of the detailed spatial plan (RDTR) will also be necessary….

A Tropenmuseum photo of Jakarta (or Batavia as it was known in the Dutch colonial era)

Ocean conditions likely to reduce Colorado River flows during this winter's drought

Meg Sullivan in the UCLA Newsroom: The convergence in the coming year of three cyclical conditions affecting ocean temperatures and weather is likely to create unprecedented challenges for states that depend on water from the Colorado River, a new UCLA study suggests. "If I were concocting a recipe for a perfect drought, this would be it," said Glen MacDonald, co-author of the study and director of UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.

Along with a former graduate student, MacDonald has found that the combination of La Niña with two less commonly known ocean conditions — the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation — tends to result in drought in the upper reaches of the Colorado River. The ocean conditions have been known to diminish precipitation in the Southwest but, examined separately, have proven to be poor indicators of drought conditions in the upper reaches of the river.

"It's the combination that's key," said lead author Abbie Tingstad, who conducted the research as a graduate student in geography at UCLA. She is now an associate physical scientist at the RAND Corp. The convergence of these patterns in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans may well drive water levels in the Lake Mead reservoir below a critical threshold and could potentially result in reduced water allocations for Arizona and Nevada, the researchers say.

Essentially all of the Colorado River water used by Southern California passes through the reservoir, which is the largest in the nation. Fed primarily by snowpack melt from its upper reaches, the river is Southern California's chief source of water. "Declines in water availability of this magnitude during the coming winter could be devastating for states that depend on the Colorado River for their water," Tingstad said…..

Desert Shore in Lake Mead National Recreation Area, National Park Service

Hungary toxic sludge reaches Danube branch

Mark Tran and agencies in the Guardian (UK): A toxic red mud spill that killed four people in western Hungary has reached the Mosoni-Danube, a southern branch of the Danube, Hungarian disaster officials said today. Tibor Dobson of Hungary's national disaster unit told Reuters the spill reached the branch of Europe's second-longest river near Hungary's border with Slovakia and Austria this morning.

But Dobson said the highly caustic slurry has been reduced to the point where it is unlikely to cause further damage to the environment. The pH level of the sludge, originally above 12, is now under 10, he said. However, a harmless level is between 6 and 8.

There are fears that the toxic torrent will cause serious ecological damage to the Danube after being carried downstream by tributaries. The sludge is expected to reach the river by the weekend or early next week....

Saving tropical forests by valuing their carbon and improving farm tech

Seed Daily: In a warming 21st century, tropical forests will be at risk from a variety of threats, especially the conversion to cropland to sustain a growing population. A new report this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition shows that crop productivity improvements and carbon emission limits together could prevent widespread tropical deforestation over the next 100 years - but if relying on either one alone, the world is at risk of losing many of its tropical forests.

"We're often concerned with agriculture encroaching on forests," said research scientist Allison Thomson of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. "This study shows that encroachment can be managed to a certain extent by increasing crop productivity - boosting the amount of food or energy that can be produced on a given piece of land."

But the study clearly shows that improving crop productivity alone will not prevent tropical deforestation. Also needed is some form of economic incentive to store carbon in forests, for example, a plan to limit all carbon emissions - from burning fossil fuels, biofuels or whole forests to make way for crops or other land uses - through economic methods such as a carbon tax or cap-and-trade program. Combined with farming improvements, this tactic not only preserves tropical forests but increases their extent….

Henri Rousseau, "In a Tropical Forest. Struggle between Tiger and Bull," 1908-1909

Crop failures set to increase under climate change

Bioscience Technology: Large-scale crop failures like the one that caused the recent Russian wheat crisis are likely to become more common under climate change, a new study shows. However, the worst effects of these events on agriculture could be mitigated by improved farming and the development of new crops, according to the research by the University of Leeds, the Met Office Hadley Centre and University of Exeter.

The unpredictability of the weather is one of the biggest challenges faced by farmers struggling to adapt to a changing climate. Some areas of the world are becoming hotter and drier, and more intense monsoon rains carry a risk of flooding and crop damage.

A summer of drought and wildfires has dramatically hit harvests across Russia this year, leading the government to place a ban on wheat exports. This led to a dramatic rise prices on the international commodity markets which is likely to have a knock-on effect in higher prices of consumer goods.

But the authors of the new study, which appears in Environmental Research Letters, argue that adaptation to climate change be possible through a combination of new crops that are more tolerant to heat and water stress, and socio-economic measures such as greater investment.

Lead author Dr Andy Challinor, from the University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment, said: "Due to the importance of international trade crop failure is an issue that affects everyone on the planet, not just those in crop-growing regions….

Severe and persistent drought held southern Russia in its grip in June and July 2010. Low rainfall and hot temperatures damaged 32 percent of the country’s grain crops, said Russian Agriculture Minister, Yelena Skrynnik on July 23. This satellite vegetation index image, made from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, shows the damage done to plants throughout southern Russia

Adaptation policy shift could help the poor

IRIN: If the Indus delta in southern Pakistan were protected by mangroves, a few hundred villages would have been saved from the floods, say Pakistani environmentalists. Thriving mangroves are a sign of healthy ecosystems, which require fresh water and a bit of investment. "Unfortunately we have not had both," said Ghulam Hussain Khwaja, president of Sindh Radiant, an environmental NGO based in the delta region in Pakistan's southern Sindh province.

Pakistan, like many other developing countries, has lacked the resources and policy direction to invest in "biodiverse" initiatives such as mangroves, which fall within the ambit of the environment ministry, also neglected, says Hannah Reid, a researcher at the climate change group at the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

However, the UN’s push for the inclusion of national biodiversity strategies in countries' plans to cope with climate change - their National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA) -could change that. The shift was one of the outcomes of a recent meeting of the secretaries of the three Rio Conventions - Luc Gnacadja of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, Christiana Figueres from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and Ahmed Djoghlaf of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

"This is good news for poor communities as most investment in adaptation to climate change has revolved around infrastructure, such as building concrete embankments," said Reid, who has long championed the value of healthy ecosystems as climate insurance. "I am glad that policy-makers have finally begun to join the dots," she said. Various studies have shown that climate change is set to erode ecosystems, which play a critical role in building poor communities' resilience to climate-related risks….

Map of world mangrove distribution, by Pinpin 08:35, 26 May 2006 (UTC), Wikimedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license

Canada needs to adapt to climate change

Bryn Weese And Laura Payton in the Toronto Sun: Climate change is real, it’s here, and Canada needs to brace itself for and adapt to the inevitable consequences of a warmer world, according to a report released Tuesday. The joint report from the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and the Royal Canadian Geographical Society outlines changes Canada will see — and in some cases is already experiencing — with a 2 C increase in global temperatures.

A list of some 60 changes — some good, mostly bad — are detailed in the report, which was published in this month’s Canadian Geographic magazine. Among them, while Canada’s ski industry will suffer, golf courses will likely be open longer. Likewise, while shipping cargo through the Great Lakes could be more expensive because of lower water levels, the forestry sector should benefit from higher yields because of faster growing trees.

A 2 C warmer Canada could also mean greater access to northern oil, gas and mineral resources, and a comeback of the Atlantic cod north of the 60th parallel. But the Arctic Sea ice will be halved, and the South Saskatchewan River could all but dry up, which will drastically alter the water infrastructure of communities throughout the prairies.

Gov. Gen. David Johnston was NRTEE’s founding chairperson 20 years ago and spoke at an event Tuesday night to mark the organization’s work with the geographical society. “Climate change is no longer a matter for academic debate alone — it is a matter for public discussion and public policy,” Johnston said….

Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta, shot by Guenter Wieschendahl

Indonesian flash floods kill 56, dozens missing

Terra Daily via AFP: At least 56 people were killed and 24 remain missing after flash floods in a remote region of Indonesia's West Papua province, a disaster management official said Tuesday. The floods were unleashed on Monday after torrential downpours that began late Sunday in West Papua's Teluk Wondama district.

"We just received information from local officials there that 56 people were killed and 24 people went missing," Dani Kismianto told AFP. He said 81 people were seriously injured and most of them had been flown to hospitals in neighbouring districts of Nabire and Manokwari.

"We reckon that the death toll will increase as the terrain conditions make it hard for the rescuers to reach them," he said adding that the affected areas are mountainous…

Locator map of West Papua created by slawojar 小山, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

The Murray-Darling plan explained

Sarah Clarke in ABC News (Australia): The Murray-Darling Basin Authority is due to release a landmark document on Friday outlining its plan to secure the long-term health of the Murray-Darling Basin. Here's an explanation of what it's all about.

The document being released on Friday October 8 is officially titled the Guide to the Proposed Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It is the first part of a three-stage process to address the problems that have plagued the system for years. The plan aims to restore flows to key environmental assets in the Murray-Darling Basin.

It will set new limits for irrigators and other water users and establish where more water is needed if the system is to survive. The Federal Government hopes to achieve a balance between agricultural, industrial, human and environmental needs.

The Murray-Darling Basin covers more than 1 million square kilometres, or 14 per cent of Australia's land mass, stretching over parts of South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. It's also the nation's most important food-producing region, heavily dependent on irrigation. The basin has been under enormous stress as a result of over-allocation, prolonged drought, natural climate variability and climate change.

As a result, a lack of water has played havoc with rivers, wetlands, forests and floodplains. State governments are to blame for allowing too much water to be taken out of the system. And the science indicates that there's no longer enough water in the rivers to keep the rivers alive….

The confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers in Wentworth, New South Wales, shot by Mattinbgn, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Pakistan stability in play with flood aid

Terra Daily via AFP: A UN refugee official suggested on Tuesday that Pakistan's geopolitical stability was at stake unless international aid accelerates to help about 20 million Pakistanis hit by devastating floods. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the situation remained "critically difficult" in some areas, while shelter and recovery for hundreds of thousands of people was still short nearly 10 weeks since flooding began.

"We need to draw the international community's attention that the emergency in Pakistan is not over," said Mengesha Kebede, the UNHCR's representative in the country. "Making sure 20 million people are rehabilitated I think is an international obligation: we are looking at a geopolitical situation where the stability of Pakistan we feel is in everybody's interest," he told journalists in Geneva.

Donors have so far funded just one-third of the 2.0 billion dollar UN aid appeal, while the UNHCR's shelter needs are only half funded, a situation Kebede dismissed as "unacceptable."…

Scientists say climate change partially to blame for increase in Wisconsin's rain events

Chad Dally in the Wausau Daily Herald (Wisconsin): Rain and flooding that wreaked havoc on central Wisconsin in September could become more common because of global climate change, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

More than 3.5 inches of rain fell on the Wausau area between Sept. 22 and Sept. 24. Storms that severe have occurred an average of two to four times per decade since 1950, said Steve Vavrus, a senior scientist at the UW-Madison Center for Climatic Research. But Vavrus said they are projected to happen more often, possibly causing more flooding and taxing stormwater sewer systems.

The number of 3-inch rain storms per decade is projected to increase by 30 percent to 40 percent by mid-century, and 40 percent to 65 percent by 2100 -- which means a storm like the one in September could occur six or seven times in a decade. "A 30 to 40 percent increase from that may not be very much, but they can also be very expensive, so even a little increase matters," Vavrus said.

Damage assessments from the September storm have climbed above $10 million solely for public infrastructure in the state, according to Wisconsin Emergency Management, which does not calculate monetary damage to homes and businesses….

Barneveld, Wisconsin, shot by Ylem

Red aluminum sludge flood kills four in Hungary

Environment News Service: Four people have died, including a three-month baby, after the waste reservoir of an aluminum plant burst Monday afternoon in western Hungary, flooding the village of Kolontar with red chemical sludge. Kolontar Mayor Karoly Tily told the state newswire MTI that all four victims were Kolontar residents and rescue workers are still searching for another four people who are reported missing.

Between 80 and 90 people have been taken to hospital with chemical burns to skin and eyes, including six who were seriously injured. The Hungarian National Disaster Management Directorate said the caustic sludge, a waste product in aluminum production, contains heavy metals and is toxic if ingested.

The incident occurred at the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant owned by MAL Magyar Aluminium in the town of Ajka, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of the capital, Budapest. At least 600,000 cubic meters (yards) of the aluminum sludge spilled out when the waste impoundment broke. The cause of the incident is still unknown….

The coat of arms of Kolontar

Indonesia beefs up measures to face extreme weather

Dina Indrasafitri in the Jakarta Post: Extreme weather conditions, which might last until February, have prompted the government to heighten anticipation measures in several sectors as well as in regions across the archipelago.

On Monday, ministers, including Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono and Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi, as well as officials from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) and the National Climate Change Council (DNPI), gathered in Jakarta for a coordinating meeting to anticipate extreme weather and climate. Also present at the meeting were Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta and Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan. Extreme weather includes tornadoes, high waves and more frequent heavy rains that lead to more floods, according to the BMKG.

Agung said the extreme climate would require adaptation in several sectors, such as the agricultural and forestry sectors. “More specific data is needed, the data from each regency namely. For instance, when will the rain in regency A begin,” he said.

The information will help to take adaptive measures, such as the right time to plant, because extreme weather until February might lead to food vulnerability, Agung added.

“Anticipative actions are also needed in terms of adaptation, especially in the transportation sector,” he said, warning about possible floods and high waves in several regions. “What’s important is the information. Once a region is known to suffer from food shortages, aid can be carried out immediately.”…

Clouds drape the summit of Gunung Klabat, an isolated symmetrical stratovolcano that rises to 1995 m near the eastern tip of the northern arm of Sulawesi, in Indonesia, shot by S. Wikartadipura (Volcanological Survey of Indonesia), Wikimedia Commons

Typhoon hurts tourism in Philippines more than hostage-taking

Philippine Information Agency: Natural calamities spawned by global warming and climate change have reduced the country's tourism potentials far more than any political uncertainty, and disastrous typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng hurt Philippine tourism far more extensively than the recent Quirino hostage tragedy in Manila.

Albay Gov. Joey S. Salceda made this observation in various lectures as he echoes Albay's experiences on disaster risk reduction and management throughout the country, noting that "One such very recent was my presentation before 120+ participants in the Visayas Media Forum organized by the Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI) headed by Juan P. Dayang, in cooperation with the Boracay Foundation Inc. and held in this tourist island paradise last Sep 24-26."

"But climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and environment protection all help in poverty reduction through good governance, and that these concerns, are themselves investments in development," said Salceda, who urged communities and leaders to invest more in these endeavors as "a feasible platform for local governance"….

Climate change monitoring system expanded to Himalayas

RedOrbit: NASA has launched a new system which will help experts keep an eye on the impact of climate change in the Himalayan Mountains, an important source of water for more than a million people, according to an AFP report on Tuesday.

The new initiative is part of NASA's ongoing SERVIR project, a regional monitoring system named for the Spanish word to serve. It is also a Spanish-language acronym for Regional Visualization and Monitoring System for Mesoamerica, according to a 2005 press release announcing its launch.

According to the American space organization's official website, "The SERVIR initiative integrates satellite observations, ground-based data and forecast models to monitor and forecast environmental changes and to improve response to natural disasters. SERVIR enables scientists, educators, project managers and policy implementers to better respond to a range of issues including disaster management, agricultural development, biodiversity conservation and climate change."

The system, which has been endorsed by the governments of Central American and Africa, will now also operate from Nepal's capital of Kathmandu, and according to the AFP, it will help monitor Himalayan glaciers that experts note have begun melting at a rapid rate. There are concerns that it could result in flooding, and ultimately, drought once the water source vanishes entirely.

…"The whole of the Himalayan region is something of a black hole for scientists and we hope to use this system to bridge the data gap," Basanta Shrestha, a senior ICIMOD executive, told the French news agency on Tuesday. "We can use this to monitor the dynamics of the cryosphere in the light of climate change, which is very important in terms of both disaster management and future water availability."…

The Himalayas from the air, by Pipimaru, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

More river water flows into oceans

Liz Kalaugher in Environmental Research Web: Climate change appears to be causing the water cycle to accelerate, boosting the amount of water flowing from rivers into the oceans. That's according to researchers in the US and India who have used satellite data to produce the first observation-based time-series of monthly global river discharge.

"Global river discharge is a fundamental Earth system flux that is important for fresh water availability, sediment and nutrient transport to the oceans, and for sea-level variations and sea-level rise," Jay Famiglietti of the University of California, Irvine, US, told environmentalresearchweb. "Surprisingly, there is no global, operational river-discharge monitoring network in existence – and in fact the number of stream gauges in the world is in steady decline."

Together with colleagues from the University of California, Irvine, Indian School of Mines, University of South Florida, California Institute of Technology and Remote Sensing Systems, US, Famiglietti found that river discharge increased from 1994 to 1999 and decreased slightly from 1999 to 2006. The team ascribed the increase to warmer sea temperatures due to El Niño.

On average, from 1994 to 2006 river discharge increased each year by 540 cubic km per year, or roughly 1.5%; the average global freshwater discharge was 36,055 cubic km per year. "While that [1.5%] may not sound like much, it summed to an 18% change over the 13-year period," said Famiglietti. "The 13-year period is too short to say that these trends are representative of the longer term. However, right now we can say that our study is an early warning that the water cycle may already be accelerating If these trends persist, say through the next decade, then they will be a smoking gun that water cycle acceleration is here."…

China’s Huang He (Yellow River) is the most sediment-filled river on Earth. Image from NASA

Disappearing glaciers enhanced biodiversity

Science Daily: Biodiversity decreases towards the poles almost everywhere in the world, except along the South American Pacific coast. Investigating fossil clams and snails Steffen Kiel and Sven Nielsen at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) could show that this unusual pattern originated at the end of the last ice age, 20.000 to 100.000 years ago. The retreating glaciers created a mosaic landscape of countless islands, bays and fiords in which new species developed rapidly -- geologically speaking. The ancestors of the species survived the ice age in the warmer Chilean north.

The exceptional biodiversity of the southern Chilean coast is known for a long time. More than 500 species of clams and snails are known from this area, twice as many as at comparable latitudes in the northern hemisphere. The reasons for this diversity were so far speculative, report Kiel and Nielsen in the current issue of the scientific journal Geology: "Opinions include that southern Chile is a museum of diversity where species survived for millions of years in addition to new arrivals; or that Antarctic species colonized this area from the south." Their analysis of around 35.000 fossil clams and snails, belonging to about 400 species, allowed the paleontologists to draw some more precise conclusions: "Our fossils reject both hypotheses. Biodiversity in this area always decreased toward the south in the geologic past, and we didn't find any intruders from Antarctica," explains Steffen Kiel. In addition, the researchers found that the vast majority of species and genera that lived in that area only 16 million years ago had become extinct. "This area is certainly not a museum of biodiversity," adds Kiel.

The most species-rich groups of animals in the southern Chilean fiordlands are those inhabiting rocky shores. This is exactly the habitat that was created when the glacier retreated from their marine termini. "Molecular biologic investigations on phylogenetic relationships of these species show that they are geologically very young and descended from North Chilean ancestors. This agrees well with our results," says Sven Nielsen, who has been working on Chilean fossils for many years. "Charles Darwin, who was the first to discover fossils in this area during his voyage on the 'Beagle', would have been fascinated."

This research shows that for species conservation not only single, exceptional habitats need to be protected, but that a diversity of habitats needs be conserved to maintain a healthy biodiversity.

The fjord of Quintupeu in the south of Chile

Malaria threatens 2 million in Pakistan as floodwaters turn stagnant

Declan Walsh in the Guardian (UK): More than 2m cases of malaria are expected in Pakistan in the coming months in the wake of the country's devastating floods, aid workers have warned. Two months into the crisis, large areas remain submerged in southern Sindh province, creating stagnant pools of standing water that, combined with the heat, are powerful incubators of a disease spread by mosquitoes that breed and hatch in the pools.

More than 250,000 cases of suspected malaria, including some of the fatal falciparum strain, have been reported, according to the World Health Organisation. Aid agency Plan International worries the figure will surpass 2m. "The most vulnerable are women and children," said its Pakistan director, Haider Yaqub. The malaria threat is part of a wider health emergency, with more than 20 million people affected by the floods struggling to cope as the winter approaches.

Last night the UN reported 881,000 cases of diarrhoea, 840,000 cases of skin diseases and almost 1m cases of respiratory disorders. Dr Dana van Alphen of the WHO said: "There are no epidemics yet – it's not Goma in 1994. But we have to be very careful."…

Climate impacts on Zambian agriculture

Tiyese Sakala in AllAfrica,com via the Times of Zambia: …In Zambia, the studies have confirmed a positive correlation between climate change and the deterioration of living conditions particularly for small-scale farmers. Way back, from 1976, studies have indicated reduction in crop production in seasons of droughts and extreme wetness confirming a positive relationship between rainfall amount and crop production levels.

Some of the research considered in this article includes the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources research report, which confirmed loss of yield within the last 20 years due to prolonged dry spells and shorter rainfall seasons. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies also reported an 80 per cent crop failure during the 2004-05 season. One female farmer, Susan, of Petauke District suffered a 70p er cent loss in maize production during the 1994-95 agricultural season.

The highest failure in maize production was in 1992 when 730,000 metric tonnes was harvested against the expected production of 1,200,000 tonnes. During this time, 660,000 hectares of land was planted. The loss was even heavier at 740,000 tonnes in 1995 considering that more land, with 850,000 hectares was committed to maize production.

Climate change affects crop production by compromising internal chemical processes that build the dry matter, which is stored as grain or tubers. Therefore, the stage in plant development at which departure from normal temperature and water supply occurs is crucial….

A street market in Chipata, Zambia, shot by Brian Dell Bdell555

$5,000,000,000,000: The cost each year of vanishing rainforest

Matt Chorley in the Independent: British scientific experts have made a major breakthrough in the fight to save the natural world from destruction, leading to an international effort to safeguard a global system worth at least $5 trillion a year to mankind.

Groundbreaking new research by a former banker, Pavan Sukhdev, to place a price tag on the worldwide network of environmental assets has triggered an international race to halt the destruction of rainforests, wetlands and coral reefs.

With experts warning that the battle to stem the loss of biodiversity is two decades behind the climate change agenda, the United Nations, the World Bank and ministers from almost every government insist no country can afford to believe it will be unaffected by the alarming rate at which species are disappearing. The Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, later this month will shift from solely ecological concerns to a hard-headed assessment of the impact on global economic security.

The UK Government is championing a new system to identify the financial value of natural resources, and the potential hit to national economies if they are lost. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Teeb) project has begun to calculate the global economic costs of biodiversity loss. Initial results paint a startling picture. The loss of biodiversity through deforestation alone will cost the global economy up to $4.5trn (£2.8trn) each year – $650 for every person on the planet, and just a fraction of the total damage being wrought by overdevelopment, intensive farming and climate change….

The Santa Lucia cloud forest, Ecuador, shot by Hjvannes, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Climate not driving civil unrest in Africa

Munyaradzi Makoni in Environmental Research Web: Climate change does not lead to strife in Africa, a political scientist with the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway has said. Halvard Buhaug believes there is no link between climate change indicators, such as temperature and rainfall variability and the occurrence of civil war over the past half-century in sub-Saharan Africa.

"The primary causes of civil war are political, not environmental," said Buhaug in research published this month in PNAS. Buhaug told environmentalresearchweb that statistical analysis reveals that short-term variations in climate cannot explain the timing and occurrence of civil war in Africa. "What seems to matter for conflict risk are structural political and economic conditions, including widespread marginalization of ethnic minority groups," he said.

Buhaug challenges a study published last year in PNAS that found a causal connection between global warming and civil violence in Africa. Marshall Burke, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, US, said he and colleagues had established a strong historical relationship between temperature and the incidence of civil war.

Burke and his team acknowledged that despite a growing research effort, linkages between climate change and conflict remain uncertain, but their findings showed that past conflicts in Africa were more likely in warmer, drier years….

Image of an AK-47 assault rifle by Meul (Meul), Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Nicaragua will improve disaster risk management and adaptation

Insurancenews.net: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved two loans totaling $10 million to reduce the vulnerability of rural communities in Nicaragua affected by climate change through a program to manage and conserve natural resources and protect watersheds.

Nicaragua is notable among Central American countries for the frequency and severity of weather events. According to the Research Centre of Disasters Epidemiology, in 2009 the country was hit by 25 hydrometeorological disasters, the highest rate in the isthmus. Over the past 30 years, such natural events left an annual average of 1,880 victims per 100,000 inhabitants and caused economic loses of $2 billion.

The country's mountainous topography with 21 watersheds contributes to its high vulnerability to natural threats. The conversion of forest in the upper watersheds into land for agricultural or livestock use coupled with the lack of access to appropriate technologies for hillside farming has increased the risk of landslides and erosion. In addition, deforestation contributes to changes in the streamflow regime of the affected watersheds, increasing the probability of floods in low-lying areas.

This IDB-financed program will improve risk management, primarily at the municipal level, in the areas of risk identification and reduction and the strengthening of governance. It will also support agricultural producers to adapt to climate change.

The program will focus on three main components:

• Support for the adoption of environmental restoration systems;
• Construction of infrastructure to reduce losses caused by climatic events; and
• Capacity building and development of instruments for risk management, local compensation mechanisms for environmental services, and adaptation to climate change.

Preparing now for climate change is smart business

Bruce Kennedy in Daily finance: …Believers in climate change warn that its future expense could cripple national and international economies. … But some observers remain skeptical about these numbers. "None of the data, none of the research studies or articles that I read are very clear on what the actual metrics are about costs," says Bruce Hutton, dean emeritus at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. Hutton has spent much of his career studying sustainable development, marketing research and corporate social responsibility. He believes some researchers are basing their estimates only on the negative costs -- without considering the increases in jobs, energy and economic performance expected from a growing renewable energy sector.

The current economic arguments over climate change, he says, are distorted by the "apparent fact-free political process we seem to be in, where it doesn't really matter what you say or what the truth is."

But Hutton says climate change is an industrial risk-management issue that cannot be ignored. "The World Business Council for Sustainable Development and some other organizations are having this conversation with businesses, about the idea of facing these mega-risks in our society," he says. "The question is: What happens if climate change is actually real and if it's somewhere in the vicinity of what most scientists say it's going to be? The question for a company -- or a community, for that matter -- is: What are the costs of that to me, in terms of how it's going to affect my business?"

…But Hutton doubts there's going to be a "gold rush" on sustainable energy in the near future. "Jeffrey Immelt at GE said we live in a kind of reset world now, from the financial markets going to hell to other stuff," he says. "We're not going to see what's been happening today as a cycle that's going to come back. We're in a time in which we have to create new stories."

And he hopes it doesn't take some climate change "mega-event" to get American industries thinking, planning and preparing. "The culture of the U.S. is we typically don't rise to the occasion until we're at the brink," Hutton says. "We have an amazing ability to respond to crises. The problem is that the issue we face today [is] a kind of [a] creeping crisis. It's a slippery slope problem. At some point we're going to have to adjust without the "defining moment" because the defining moment may be too damn late."…

Some bleak clouds, shot by Fir0002, flagstaffotos.com.au, Wikimedia Commons, nder the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 only

Rising sea may prompt inland move for Chesapeake Bay

Nicole Dao and Stacy Jones in Delmarva Now via the Capital News Service: Rising sea levels and violent weather caused by climate change could force some people in the Chesapeake Bay area inland in the coming decades, said a migration policy expert. "If you look at any of the maps that show areas of the world that are low-lying coastal areas, the Chesapeake Bay always shows up," said Susan Martin, executive director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University.

Martin co-chaired the Transatlantic Study Team on Climate-Induced Migration, a group convened to study how climate affects migration, which released a report Wednesday that says natural disasters like rising sea levels and drought will inevitably affect people around the globe. The study argues that policymakers should begin planning how to handle the resulting internal and international movements now.

…The bay has already lost 13 islands to rising sea levels, which could reach 17-28 inches above 1990 levels by 2095, according to the National Wildlife Federation. "The bay makes Maryland the fourth most vulnerable state for pollution," said Tommy Landers, a policy advocate at Environment Maryland. The state's exposed shores make it especially susceptible to damage from hurricanes, which the study said have been increasing in strength.

…Different environmental factors cause varying rates of migration. According to the team's findings, drought and rising sea levels lead to gradual migration, while last year's earthquake in Haiti and this summer's flooding in Pakistan caused sudden refugee movements. Martin said she's not advocating that people leave the bay area immediately. Instead, she said officials and residents should start planning ahead….

Delaware Bay and Chesapeake Bay, from NASA

Coastal storm soaks North Carolina

John Pape in Disaster News Network: Torrential storms triggered by the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole moved north Friday inundating New York and New England while North Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic states began to dry out and clean-up from the record rainfall.

…But of all the states contending with the storm, North Carolina, where nearly two-feet of rain fell in four days, is facing the biggest disaster response challenge. Rainfall totals surpassed 22 inches, breaking Wilmington’s all-time precipitation record, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record of 19 inches was held by Hurricane Floyd, which struck the area in 1999.
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…Unlike Hurricane Floyd which dropped much of its rain to the west of Wilmington causing extensive flooding on the Cape Fear River, rain from the current storm system has been draining quick enough to keep floodwaters out of most homes and businesses. Still, many area roads and highways remained impassible through much of eastern North Carolina, stranding motorists and closing businesses for a second full day. In areas where roads were still open, numerous weather-related accidents were reported to local law enforcement agencies.

…In the community of Kinston, about 80 miles southeast of Raleigh, a mobile home park had to be evacuated. Lenoir County Emergency Management Director Roger Dail said about 70 people had to be moved to a shelter because of high water in the park. “The water seems to have stopped rising for now, but it will probably be tomorrow at the earliest before we can let people go back in there,” Dail said….

A topographic map of North Carolina

Korean conference on disaster risk reduction

Monica Chung in Korea Intelligent Technology Times: The 4th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) will be held in Songdo, Incheon on Oct. 25 for a three-day run under the main theme of "disaster risk reduction through climate change adaptation."

"Along with ministers for disaster management from 62 nations, more than 800 participants will attend the international conference to discuss the mutual cooperation and common resolution in the Asian region for disasters induced by climate change, such as typhoon and heavy rain,” a top official of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said.

…AMCDRR is the only official international ministerial conference for disaster management in the Asian region. It has been sponsored by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) secretariat since 2005 for disaster risk reduction in the Asian region after the tsunami occurred in South Asia in December 2004.

…The NEMA head [Park Yeon-soo] said, "The main purpose of the 4th AMCDRR is to derive agreement for common response to the disasters induced by climate change in the Asian area for the first time.…As a means of contributing to disaster risk reduction in the Asia-Pacific region, NEMA will provide Korea's excellent up-to-date disaster prevention systems, such as TCDIS, earthquake disaster response system free of charge to each nation," he noted….

Suncheon Bay and reed fields, shot by Byeonggwan, Wikimedia Commons

Bolivia's drought and fires worsen

Earthweek: Bolivia’s worst drought in 30 years has sparked nearly 50,000 wildfires over the past few months, creating health problems and even disrupting air traffic.

“The drought has kindled these massive, widespread blazes and estimates tell us they will continue until December,” Bolivian Forest and Lands Authority president Cliver Rocha told state media.

President Evo Morales and several government officials have said that some of the fires were intentionally ignited, but blame climate change for the conditions that allowed them to spread to such a great extent….

From NASA: The fires are outlined in red. Most of the fires are concentrated in Bolivia, where the governments of two states had declared a state of emergency because of widespread fires three days earlier. Scores of fires also burn in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The fires cloak the heart of South America in gray-white smoke. Spreading north and south along the east side of the Andes Mountains, the smoke extends over the entire 2,500-kilometre length of the image. While some fires do occur naturally in Bolivia, most of these fires were probably set deliberately to clear land for crops or pasture.

Major flooding exercise to test emergency response in England and Wales

WebNewswire (UK): Exercise Watermark will bring together government bodies, big business, and local communities to trial responses to a range of scenarios which could occur during a flood emergency. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman will use a visit to the Flood Forecasting Centre in Farringdon today to announce plans for the exercise.

Mrs. Spelman will say: Climate change means that flooding will be unavoidable in the future so we must take steps now to analyse the risk and plan ahead. The Flood Forecasting Centre is vital in providing the evidence, but we must ensure that we act on it.

Exercise Watermark will be a real test of our ability to deal with a range of flooding issues such as burst riverbanks, surface water flooding and reservoir failure. This is just one example of the important work that Defra and its agencies are doing to help local communities improve their resilience in a big society approach to flooding.

Beginning with a pilot event in November 2010, Exercise Watermark will then go live across England and Wales from 4-11 March 2011. More than 3,500 emergency responders and numerous community groups have already signed up to the countrys largest national multi-agency flooding exercise.

Organisations that will be taking part include 31 Local Resilience Forums, hospitals, the Ministry of Defence, Network Rail and the Flood Forecasting Centre. Companies including Vodafone, EDF Energy and the Bank of England have all signed up to test their business continuity arrangements as part of the exercise….